Celebrity Guest Hosts Find Fans, and Some Fun, in ‘Raw’s’ Ring

The addition of celebrity guest hosts to “Raw” coincides with a conscious decision by producers to make the program more family-friendly. Gone, in recent years, is the blood — real or otherwise — that was a staple of many matches, as are vulgar gestures to the crowd by performers past like Stone Cold Steve Austin.

“I’ve got young kids,” said Triple H, whose real name is Paul Levesque and who is married to Mr. McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, executive vice president for creative development for WWE. “Years ago, we were what we were, and I certainly wouldn’t want to have my young kids watch that product.” “We’ve evolved,” he added.

Mr. Levesque, whose voice is less menacing outside the ring, speaks of the wide reach a “Raw” guest host might achieve with a single appearance. It’s not just the regular viewers — an estimated 420,000 of whom are boys ages 12 to 17. Some of the material will also be repackaged on the WWE shows “Smackdown” (an average of 3.5 million viewers), and “NXT” (1.3 million viewers) as well as on its Web site (wwe.com).

Ms. McMahon, who refers to her father as Vince at work, and Dad at home, took the “Saturday Night Live” analogy a step further, in a reference to the late-night variety show’s creator and executive producer.

“Vince would hate that I said this,” she said. “But he and Lorne Michaels are a lot alike. They both have a clear vision, and they both know exactly how they want you to execute it.”...More?

source: nytimes.com